


Just One of Those Tech Problems (Hotels Have Better Pillows Remix)

by Neverever



Category: Marvel Adventures: Avengers
Genre: Fluffy, Hotels, M/M, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-23 06:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13781388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: Tony's new hotel booking app seems to have a glitch when Tony uses it -- for some reason he always ends up sharing a hotel room with Steve.





	Just One of Those Tech Problems (Hotels Have Better Pillows Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FestiveFerret](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FestiveFerret/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Pillow Talk](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13521117) by [FestiveFerret](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FestiveFerret/pseuds/FestiveFerret). 
  * In response to a prompt by [FestiveFerret](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FestiveFerret/pseuds/FestiveFerret) in the [Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness_2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Cap_Ironman_Remix_Madness_2018) collection. 



> This is a remix of FestiveFerret's Pillow Talk, which is a terrific fic. This fic takes places in different universe, but same results.
> 
> Thanks to my beta, Arms_Plutonic.

“No, seriously, I call it StarkBooking. For my employees -- handles all travel arrangements, payment, even tips, all billed directly to the company,” Tony explained. He showed Steve the shiny new app on Steve’s cell phone.

Steve frowned. He’d gotten used to calling the dedicated Stark travel agent whenever the team needed a place to crash after a fight. He hoped she wasn’t out of a job. Susan liked to tell him stories about her grandchildren in her Minnesota accent when he called to straighten out the team’s travel. She fretted that Steve hadn’t found the right man yet.

“What? Tech problem, Cap?”

“The travel agents.”

“No -- I’d never lay anyone off because of an app,” Tony replied. The travel agents are just behind the scene -- we just don’t have to wake anyone up to get a room.”

Steve nodded tightly. They had arrived at the invasion scene. “Okay, team, we’re here. Attuma, invasion force, troops equipped with breathing apparatus, the usual. Deploying Iron Man and Storm now.”

“And can someone get Bruce into the Hulk mood?” Tony added as he headed to quinjet hatch.

In general, Steve wasn’t a big fan of fighting Attuma. It wasn’t just the fighting against scaley fishmen who were true believers in their cause. Attuma’s pompous, long-winded megalomaniacal speeches had a way of getting under Steve’s skin. And for a man with large reserves of patience, Steve just didn’t have any more. So by the end of the fight, he was cranky, annoyed, and ready to be alone in silence for a few hours.

“The Panama Canal is secure,” Steve reported over the comms to the Panamanian authorities. 

Tony was swiping through his phone. “I’ve set up our hotel rooms for tonight.”

Peter sighed. “We’re not going back to New York?”

“It’s late. We wouldn’t get home for hours. Better to stay here and leave before dawn,” Steve replied. 

“Five-star resort here we come,” Tony said gleefully.

“Better have a good bar,” Logan grumbled.

As promised, Tony booked rooms for all the team members with a spa appointment for Jan to boot. “I need something to deal with the slime,” she explained. Peter and Logan were booked on floors as far apart as possible; Bruce in a very quiet corner. The rest had their own individual luxury suites.

Except that Steve and Tony had been booked into a suite, together. “I think that there’s been a mistake,” Tony said politely to the hotel clerk.

“No, sir.” She pulled up Tony’s reservations. “We have only six suites booked. And sorry, we don’t have any other rooms available.”

Slime was seeping into Steve’s wet underwear and he’d had it with the day. “It’s okay, Tony. I’ve shared rooms before.”

“Fine,” Tony muttered. “You just deserve a nice hotel room, that’s all.”

Steve figured that the suite would have two beds. He’d prefer a king-sized bed, but he could put up with a smaller one. He just needed to get out of the now-chafing uniform soon. He leaned against the wall while Tony opened the door. Tony’s strangled cry as he entered the room hinted that something was seriously wrong.

He was expecting something like a broken window or missing television or maybe sub-par linens per Tony’s standards (which were very high). No, it was one bed. A queen-sized bed. 

“I’m going to call the desk and demand --”

“Tony, they said that there weren’t any other rooms,” Steve said. It wasn’t that he was weary, but he really needed a shower and food, he was going to need to eat very soon. “I’ve shared beds before, it’s not a big deal. Let’s just order room service and I can finally take a shower --”

Tony threw up his hands. “Fine. If you’re okay with it, I’m okay with it.”

Actually, it turned out to be really fun to share a room with Tony. They didn’t get all that much time to do friend-stuff usually; watching terrible movies while eating good food with Tony was the perfect way to end a crappy day. Tony had Steve in stitches with his comments on the movie’s special effects. And it was nice to have Tony all to himself for once. They probably stayed up a lot longer than they should have. 

The only drawback was that the bed was small with two large men in it. And Steve probably should have said something to Tony about Tony cuddling against him for most of the night. Still, Steve had to admit that the cuddling had felt rather nice. 

~~~~~  
“StarkBooking did it again,” Tony pronounced as they arrived at yet another five-star resort just outside San Francisco after a battle against the Leader.

Even though it wasn’t even lunchtime yet, they had decided against returning back to New York since Bruce was shaking terribly after the fight and no one wanted a Hulk breakout on the quinjet. Steve looked back at Jan talking gently to Bruce, whose calming headphones had been broken in the fight. Peter and Ororo were already plotting a sight-seeing tour of the city.

“What do you mean that Steve and I have to share a room, again? Single bed?” Tony asked the hotel clerk.

“Sir, we only have so many rooms and we’re booked solid. We could arrange for a cot to be sent to the room.”

“We could call Susan or Carla -- they could sort it out,” Steve suggested. This never happened when the travel agents booked the team’s rooms.

But Tony believed in his tech more than he believed in gravity. “No. We’re fine. Hotels get booked,” he said through gritted teeth.

The rest of the team headed off to the city for the rest of the day while Steve tried out the hotel pool and Tony answered work email. He walked back into their shared suite to find Tony sprawled over the bed tapping on a laptop. There should be a law against how gorgeous a frustrated Tony looked. 

“The concierge found you some clothes. Get changed -- we’re going out for dinner,” Tony announced.

“But the team --”

“Peter’s dragged everyone to Fisherman’s Wharf. We’re going to a real restaurant with forks and knives and plates. And just us.”

The car dropped them off at a restaurant with a name Steve couldn’t pronounce, where the staff welcomed them like lost relatives. They were seated at a table outside bathed in the fading evening sunlight and sweet spring breeze. Tony was charming and funny and ridiculously handsome. Steve felt strangely lucky to be seated across from him, given the furtive jealous looks from a few people around them. 

He was spending time with his best friend, whose blue eyes were bright and smiles ready. He didn’t get to see Tony like this very often, relaxed, happy, and glad to talk about anything. And Steve had him all to himself.

“What I’d really like is a great convertible. Put the top down and we could go out on a spin -- the roads are terrific out here.”

“I’d like that,” Steve said. 

They returned back to the room late and went straight to bed. Tony said that he couldn’t stand to let Steve sleep on the small rollaway cot, and Steve was too polite to ask Tony to. So they ended up sharing a bed again.

Steve dreamed of riding around the golden California coast in Tony’s convertible with Tony’s arm warm along his back, listening to Tony talk. And he woke up to find Tony tucked up against him.

He needed to stop this. He was falling for Tony in a bad way. 

But he didn’t say a peep the next time StarkBooking threw him and Tony together. It was a dingy room with a full-sized bed, and they slept practically in other’s arms, the bed too small for either of them to have any space. 

“I should complain,” Tony muttered into Steve’s neck. But he didn’t and Steve didn’t. 

~~~~~

Every time they used Tony’s travel app, Steve and Tony ended up with one room and one bed. Tony refused to give up using the app. It was working as intended, he insisted. Even the other team members said it looked weird.

During dinner at the hotel restaurant, Bruce offered to look at the source code. “You might have missed some bit of code.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Right. Like I would program code that only books one room for me and Steve for the fun of it.”

“That’s one explanation,” Peter said with a deadpan tone.

Logan ran a hand over his face and groaned. “I take a break from the X-men for a reason and you’re worse than the lot of them.” He stood up. “I’m going to a bar. Call me in the morning -- I’ll still be there.”

After dinner, Jan pulled Steve aside. “You’re okay with this, right? You can say no --”

“Tony is my friend and it’s fine,” Steve replied. 

“Is there anything going on we should know about?” Jan persisted. “Tony doesn’t even bother to complain anymore. He kind of does this shrug thing when he finds out you’re sharing a room again.”

Steve should be going -- Tony had a list of bad movies they were going to watch together in the room. There would be popcorn. He didn’t want to miss a moment. “Tony will figure it out.”

“Yeah, but does he want to figure it out? That’s the real question,” Jan said.

Steve didn’t want Tony to find why they were booked in the same hotel room all the time now. He looked forward to sharing a room with Tony. They hung out, went for coffee and breakfast, watched movies, played video games, just them, none of the team. He was having the time of his life.

But it was borrowed time, he realized. He looked down at Tony, falling asleep on his shoulder while the movie droned on. Steve tugged the blanket up to cover him, in case Tony was cold. Tony would find out if it was just bad luck or the app’s problem, and then they’d be back to the way things were with separate rooms and less time together. 

Steve didn’t ask for much in life, but he hoped that this time with Tony would last as long as possible. He was a big supporter of the StarkBooking app.

~~~~~

“Why did AIM build their base all the way out here in Nowheresville?” Peter complained. He’d gotten the worst of the fight and shivered in the Oregon drizzle in his torn suit.

“I find it very refreshing,” Ororo said. 

“That’s because you didn’t have to slog through sludge,” Peter said. “If I could fly --”

“Hmmm, StarkBooking can’t find a hotel,” Tony said. He was sitting on the quinjet ramp swiping through his phone. 

The whole team tensed up, all of them feeling like they had come to an interesting crossroads. If Tony couldn’t make the app work, would they be heading back home in the quinjet? Would Steve and Tony end up in the same room again? Would they be able to find beer for Logan?

“We could call the travel agents,” Steve offered.

“We could, or I could find something online myself --” Tony said.

Ororo took action. She used her phone. “Hello, Susan. Thank you -- the team needs somewhere to stay tonight -- you see the GPS coordinates? Ah, good. We can wait.” She hung up. “Susan is working on it.”

A tense few minutes passed and Susan called Ororo back. “Oh, an historic inn? That sounds very nice. I understand, it happens. The quinjet? Okay. How are the grandchildren? That’s good to hear. Thank you, Susan.”

She looked at the team. “We have rooms at an historic inn about ten miles that way.” She pointed to the west. “We can park the quinjet in the police station parking lot overnight.” She hesitated.

Steve’s blood raced. What if -- what if this was the time that he and Tony had separate rooms? There wasn’t any real reason that they should have a single room, and it would be strange if Steve insisted that they do so.

“And?” Jan asked. The team leaned in to hear the other shoe drop.

“There were only so many rooms available at the inn,” Ororo confessed.

“And?” Peter prompted. The unspoken question about Steve and Tony’s sleeping arrangements hung in the air. 

“Steve and Tony have rooms at the bed and breakfast across the street from the inn.”

Logan muttered, “Rooms or room?” 

“Room, I think.”

“It’s not the app, it’s just luck,” Tony said.

The rest of the team looked at each other in shock until Logan threw his arms up. “I give up. Let’s get going. I hope there’s enough liquor in this town to wipe all this out of my mind.”

~~~~~

The bed and breakfast was a big, restored late-Victorian home that had a lovely view of the Pacific Ocean. Steve and Tony had the best room in the place, with a small balcony with a view and an enormous four-poster bed with a soft mattress and more pillows than Steve had ever owned in his life.

They had dinner with the team and then headed back for the evening. Steve was sitting on a rocking chair on the balcony, rocking back and forth soaking up the sea breeze while Tony played with his phone. 

“I wish we could stay here for a couple of days,” Steve blurted out.

“Really?” Tony said. “Cap wants to take a vacation all of the sudden?”

“It’s just peaceful. And you’re here and the team is somewhere else. If it’s just luck that we ended up here, we’ll never have this chance again.” Steve had started feeling lonely all by himself in the Tower in his own room without Tony there. He even missed when Tony was cranky and low on coffee and angrily arguing with his computer.

Tony’s lips quirked up in a smile. “Did Jan talk to you?”

“Yeah.”

“She told me to knock it off. She thinks I’m taking advantage of you -- that I set the app up in a way that books us a room together.”

“Oh,” Steve said. 

“Am I taking advantage of you? You should tell me, Steve. I would never --” 

He stood up and pulled Tony out of his chair. Steve hated to hear Tony worried like that, like he was hurting Steve. So he kissed Tony as the only solution. A nice, long, lingering kiss that heated his skin and warmed him down to his toes and made Tony smile again. 

He broke off the kiss and leaned his forehead against Tony’s. “No. You are not taking advantage.”

Tony put his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “It felt weird when I had a room to myself,” he confessed as he entwined his fingers in Steve’s hair.

“Because we’re better off together,” Steve said. He almost stuttered over his words.

Tony said, “Yeah, that’s it,” as he went in for another kiss.

~~~~~

A month later back home in New York, Steve was still expecting to wake up and find that he wasn’t dating Tony after all. But he wasn’t dreaming and he was having lunch with his real-world boyfriend Tony.

“I found out why we were booked into the same room all those times,” Tony said. 

“Oh?”

“I was planning our weekend getaway and one of the travel agents dropped that it was hard-coded into our systems that you and I were supposed to booked into the same room, no matter what the room availability was. The company would even pay extra fees and book empty rooms to make it happen.”

“Who did that? Why?” Steve asked.

“No one claims responsibility.”

“Hmm.” In truth, Steve was disappointed. He would have liked to buy a gift for whoever did it. 

Although, Susan the travel agent seemed overjoyed to find out that Steve and Tony were dating. Tony hired smart, innovative people. He’d send Susan all the flowers he could tomorrow.


End file.
